The phrase "The customer is always right" was originally coined in 1909 by Harry
Gordon Selfridge, the founder of Selfridge's department store in London, and is
typically used by businesses to convince customers that they will get good service at
this company and convince employees to give customers good service.
However, I think businesses should abandon this phrase once and for all -- ironically,
because it leads to worse customer service.
Here are the top five reasons why "The Customer Is Always Right" is wrong.
1: It Makes Employees Unhappy
Gordon Bethune is a brash Texan (as is Herb Kelleher, coincidentally) who is best
known for turning Continental Airlines around "From Worst to First," a story told in
his book of the same title from 1998. He wanted to make sure that both customers
and employees liked the way Continental treated them, so he made it very clear that
the maxim "the customer is always right" didn't hold sway at Continental.
In conflicts between employees and unruly customers he would consistently side
with his people. Here's how he put it:
When we run into customers that we can't reel back in, our loyalty is with our
employees. They have to put up with this stuff every day. Just because you buy a
ticket does not give you the right to abuse our employees ...
We run more than 3 million people through our books every month. One or two of
those people are going to be unreasonable, demanding jerks. When it's a choice
between supporting your employees, who work with you every day and make your
product what it is, or some irate jerk who demands a free ticket to Paris because you
ran out of peanuts, whose side are you going to be on?
You can't treat your employees like serfs. You have to value them ... If they think that
you won't support them when a customer is out of line, even the smallest problem
can cause resentment.
So Bethune trusted his people over unreasonable customers. What I like about this
attitude is that it balances employees and customers. The "always right" maxim
squarely favors the customer which is a bad idea, because, as Bethune says, it causes
resentment among employees.
Of course, there are plenty of examples of bad employees giving lousy customer
service but trying to solve this by declaring the customer "always right" is counterproductive.
2: It Gives Abrasive Customers an Unfair Advantage
Using the slogan "The customer is always right," abusive customers can demand just
about anything -- they're right by definition, aren't they? This makes the employees'
jobs that much harder when trying to rein them in.
Also, it means that abusive people get better treatment and conditions than nice
people. That always seemed wrong to me, and it makes much more sense to be nice
to the nice customers to keep them coming back.
3: Some Customers Are Bad for Business
Most businesses think that "the more customers the better". But some customers are
quite simply bad for business.
Danish IT service provider ServiceGruppen proudly tell this story:
One of our service technicians arrived at a customer's site for a maintenance task,
and to his great shock was treated very rudely by the customer.
When he'd finished the task and returned to the office, he told management about
his experience. They promptly cancelled the customer's contract.
Just like Kelleher dismissed the irate lady who kept complaining (but somehow also
kept flying on Southwest), ServiceGruppen fired a bad customer. Note that it was not
even a matter of a financial calculation -- not a question of whether either company
would make or lose money on that customer in the long run. It was a simple matter
of respect and dignity and of treating their employees right.
4: It Results in Worse Customer Service
Rosenbluth International, a corporate travel agency since bought by American
Express, took it even further. CEO Hal Rosenbluth wrote an excellent book about
their approach called Put The Customer Second - Put your people first and
watch'em kick butt.
Rosenbluth argues that when you put the employees first, they put the customers
first. Put employees first and they will be happy at work. Employees who are happy
at work give better customer service because:
They care more about other people, including customers
 They have more energy
 They are happy, meaning they are more fun to talk to and interact with
 They are more motivated
On the other hand, when the company and management consistently side with
customers instead of with employees, it sends a clear message that:



Employees are not valued
Treating employees fairly is not important
Employees have no right to respect from customers
 Employees have to put up with everything from customers
When this attitude prevails, employees stop caring about service. At that point,
genuinely good service is almost impossible -- the best customers can hope for is fake
good service. You know the kind I mean: courteous on the surface only.

5: Some Customers Are Just Plain Wrong
Herb Kelleher agrees, as this passage From Nuts! the excellent book about Southwest
Airlines shows:
Herb Kelleher [...] makes it clear that his employees come first -- even if it means
dismissing customers. But aren't customers always right? "No, they are not,"
Kelleher snaps. "And I think that's one of the biggest betrayals of employees a boss
can possibly commit. The customer is sometimes wrong. We don't carry those sorts
of customers. We write to them and say, 'Fly somebody else. Don't abuse our
people.'"
If you still think that the customer is always right, read this story from Bethune's
bookFrom Worst to First:
A Continental flight attendant once was offended by a passenger's child wearing a hat
with Nazi and KKK emblems on it. It was pretty offensive stuff, so the attendant went
to the kid's father and asked him to put away the hat. "No," the guy said. "My kid can
wear what he wants, and I don't care who likes it."
The flight attendant went into the cockpit and got the first officer, who explained to
the passenger the FAA regulation that makes it a crime to interfere with the duties of
a crew member. The hat was causing other passengers and the crew discomfort, and
that interfered with the flight attendant's duties. The guy better put away the hat.
He did, but he didn't like it. He wrote many nasty letters. We made every effort to
explain our policy and the federal air regulations, but he wasn't hearing it. He even
showed up in our executive suite to discuss the matter with me. I let him sit out
there. I didn't want to see him and I didn't want to listen to him. He bought a ticket
on our airplane, and that means we'll take him where he wants to go. But if he's going
to be rude and offensive, he's welcome to fly another airline.
The fact is that some customers are just plain wrong, that businesses are better of
without them, and that managers siding with unreasonable customers over
employees is a very bad idea, that results in worse customer service.
So any business needs to put its people first -- and watch them put the customers
first.
--
Alexander Kjerulf, the "Chief Happiness Officer," is one of the world's leading
experts on workplace happiness and the author of Happy Hour is 9 to 5: How to
love your job, love your life and kick butt at work.
Alexander is a speaker, consultant, and author with a global following of millions.
He runs a consultancy firm offering lectures, workshops, and leadership training
with focus on happiness at work for clients including IBM, Hilton, LEGO, HP and
Ikea.